Deloitte Global predicts the number of machine learning pilots and implementations will double in 2018 compared to 2017, and double again by 2020.

These and many other fascinating insights are from the latest series of machine learning market forecasts, market estimates, and projections. Machine learning’s potential impact across many of the world’s most data-prolific industries continues to fuel venture capital investment, private equity (PE) funding, mergers, and acquisitions all focused on winning the race of Intellectual Property (IP) and patents in this field.

One of the fastest growing areas of machine learning IP is the development of custom chipsets. Deloitte Global is predicting up to 800K machine learning chips will be in use across global data centers this year. Enterprises are increasing their research, investment, and piloting of machine learning programs in 2018. And while the methodologies all vary across the many sources of forecasts, market estimates, and projections, all reflect how machine learning is improving the acuity and insights of companies on how to grow faster and more profitably.

Key takeaways from the collection of machine learning market forecasts, market estimates and projections include the following:

Within the Business Intelligence (BI) & analytics market, Data Science platforms that support machine learning are predicted to grow at a 13% CAGR through 2021. Data Science platforms will outperform the broader BI & analytics market, which is predicted to grow at an 8% CAGR in the same period. Data Science platforms will grow in value from $3B in 2017 to $4.8B in 2021. Source: An Investors' Guide to Artificial Intelligence, J.P. Morgan. November 27, 2017 (110 pp., PDF, no opt-in).

Tech market leaders including Amazon, Apple, Google, Tesla, and Microsoft are leading their industry sectors by a wide margin in machine learning (ML) and AI investment. Each is designing ML into future-generation products and using ML and AI to improve customer experiences and improve the efficiency of selling channels. Source: Will You Embrace AI Fast Enough? AT Kearney, January 2018.

Deloitte Global predicts the number of machine learning pilots and implementations will double in 2018 compared to 2017, and double again by 2020. Factors driving the increasing pace of ML pilots include more pervasive support of Application Program Interfaces (APIs), automating data science tasks, reducing the need for training data, accelerating training and greater insight into explaining results. Source: Deloitte Global Predictions 2018 Infographics.

Source: Deloitte Global Predictions 2018 Infographics.

60% of organizations at varying stages of machine learning adoption, with nearly half (45%) saying the technology has led to more extensive data analysis & insights. 35% can complete faster data analysis and increased the speed of insight, delivering greater acuity to their organizations. 35% are also finding that machine learning is enhancing their R&D capabilities for next-generation products. Source: Google & MIT Technology Review study: Machine Learning: The New Proving Ground for Competitive Advantage (10 pp., PDF, no opt-in).

McKinsey estimates that total annual external investment in AI was between $8B to $12B in 2016, with machine learning attracting nearly 60% of that investment. McKinsey estimates that total annual external investment in AI was between $8B to $12B in 2016, with machine learning attracting nearly 60% of that investment. Robotics and speech recognition are two of the most popular investment areas. Investors are most favoring machine learning startups due to quickness code-based start-ups have at scaling up to include new features fast. Software-based machine learning startups are preferred over their more cost-intensive machine-based robotics counterparts that often don’t have their software counterparts do. As a result of these factors and more, Corporate M&A is soaring in this area. The following graphic illustrates the distribution of external investments by category from the study. Source: McKinsey Global Institute Study, Artificial Intelligence, The Next Digital Frontier (80 pp., PDF, free, no opt-in).

Deloitte Global is predicting machine learning chips used in data centers will grow from a 100K to 200K run rate in 2016 to 800K this year. At least 25% of these will be Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). Deloitte found the Total Available Market (TAM) for Machine Learning (ML) Accelerator technologies could potentially reach $26B by 2020. Source: Deloitte Global Predictions 2018.

I am currently serving as Principal, IQMS. Previous positions include product management at Ingram Cloud, product marketing at iBASEt, Plex Systems, senior analyst at AMR Research (now Gartner), marketing and business development at Cincom Systems, Ingram Micro, a SaaS star...